Today, a QR code can move money across hundreds of kilometres with a few taps on a phone. As India enters its 80th year of Independence, that simple transaction is the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of how money has travelled across distance.
Go back several centuries. Somewhere along India’s sprawling trading routes, a merchant needs to send money to a distant town. There is no bank to walk into, no machine to withdraw from, no electronic network waiting to carry the payment. And yet, the money can move. A hundi — passed through a trusted network of merchants and bankers — carries the instruction to pay, allowing value to cross hundreds of kilometres without the coins themselves travelling with it.
